


A Landscape Turned Still life

by SnowboundWanderer



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: #PetrasheWeek2020, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cooking, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Sexual Content, Sexual Humor, Slice of Life, Swearing in a foreign language, The inherent romanticism of winter, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26781397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowboundWanderer/pseuds/SnowboundWanderer
Summary: Of all the strange, incomprehensible things Petra has seen during her studies in Fódlan, none was stranger than the love some people had for its winters: cold that seeped into your bones, snow that quickly buried you, and a Sun that barely puts in any effort.Still, a winter vacation to frozen reaches can reveal that even the strangest things have an undeniable magic to them, especially when you share it with someone special.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Petra Macneary, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Mercedes von Martritz/Dedue Molinaro, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 27





	A Landscape Turned Still life

**Author's Note:**

> Written after seeing the upcoming Petrashe week on Twitter, but I finished way faster than I thought and didn't want to sit on it for a week-and-a-half.

If Petra allowed herself to be prideful on one thing, it was her determination to be knowledgeable: if there was something she did not know or was confused by, she wouldn’t rest until she understood.

She was confident, however, that she would never understand how anyone could live in a place like this. A gust of wind proved her point, blowing past and stinging the exposed parts of her face.

She’d learned to tolerate the winters at Garreg Mach over the course of her attendance at the university, but here in northern Faerghus winter was a completely different beast. Increasing her pace to catch up with her boyfriend, she stared at the back of his head and wondered how he’d talked her into this.

The answer came to her quickly as she let out a small sigh. Ashe had spent almost all of summer with her in Brigid on the internship he’d managed to get, and the poor boy had suffered in the heat and humidity. The number of times she’d had to rub aloe vera all over him, despite his diligent use of sunscreen, would have been impressive if she hadn’t had guilt gnawing at her gut. And through it all, he almost never complained, keeping his upbeat and positive attitude even when he looked like a puddle of melted vanilla ice cream (he’d even found it amusing when she called him such, asking what flavor his silver hair would be). So when he’d brought up spending winter break near the town where his younger siblings had started college, with an excited twinkle in his eye, Petra didn’t hesitate to agree, even as the thought of it put a chill her bones.

This was their first full day here, after reaching their destination late yesterday afternoon. Ashe had somehow convinced her to eschew the car today and walk nearly 40 minutes to the terrace the campus had on the now frozen lake to meet his siblings. Meeting with them had been wonderful, and Petra happily shared many stories of their brother’s time in Brigid, much to Ashe’s embarrassment. Once the siblings had left with promises to study for the last of their finals, Ashe had put her to the test by suggesting they go to the peninsula of land that served as a large natural area, and instead of going by the plowed paths along the lakeshore, led her right out onto the frozen lake. She’d been on frozen water before, but Garreg Mach had mostly small ponds. This lake was large enough that she couldn’t really make out the far side, and getting to the tip of the peninsula required going out quite far. The plentiful footprints and snowmobile tracks proving the ice’s thickness didn’t do much to calm her nerves, but Ashe’s gloved hand holding hers tightly did.

Once they were finally back on actual land, they had spent the past few hours meandering through the forest. The firs, pines, and other evergreens were a welcome sight, as their green provided some needed color among the grey skies and white ground. It also helped that they provided a nice contrast to the lighter tint of Ashe’s eyes when he looked at her. The deciduous trees though…

One of the first things Petra had learned to love about Fódlan was the color change in Autumn. She had seen pictures growing up, but seeing it in person for the first time during her first semester had been incredible, and those were just random trees sprinkled around neighborhoods. Just over two years ago, their extended friend circles had gone on a road trip to a large forest reserve in Faerghus that was said to have the best fall colors on the continent, and it didn’t disappoint. The massive sea of red, orange, and yellow was utterly unlike anything she had experienced in the tropical climate of her home. It was also where the dance she and Ashe had been doing for several prior months finally concluded with a kiss among the falling maple leaves swirling around them, and a particularly large red one tucked behind one of her braids courtesy of her new boyfriend. Ignatz had made a lovely drawing of it that they proudly framed and displayed in their shared apartment, despite the teasing they received from their friends for the sheer romantic corniness of it.

Petra would happily admit she loved Fódlan’s autumn and the display the trees gave, but now, as she glanced among the barren branches, she felt they had a sinister feeling. Like exposed skeletons looming over her, twisted and withered bones reaching out to snatch her.

Ashe, on the other hand, seemed to have no such feelings like that, his face having nothing but boyish delight as he walked through the mostly sleeping forest. She found his attitude strange, given his fear of ghosts and the supernatural, but Spirits curse her if she ruined it for him by pointing it out.

They passed the site of a fireplace, ashes still lying around having not been properly disposed of. Petra also noted the perfectly circular holes in the snowbanks, and assumed it must have been for the efficient chilling of beer bottles. A nearby sign pointed towards the park’s entrance, and she gave an audible sigh of relief as the cold continued to seep past her thick jacket.

“Are you alright, Petra?” Ashe asked, turning to her with a look of concern in his eyes.

“Yes, I am being fine, _mo chroí_ , just cold,” she replied, as another strong blast of wind came through. “Make that very cold.”

“Well, the entrance is just ahead, and from there it’s only 20 or 25 minutes to ho…where we’re staying,” Ashe said. She gave him a smile, and a few minutes later they cleared the forest and were now in an open field, the college’s hospital looming in the distance, and their accommodations beyond.

There was also a very large, very dark front of clouds ahead, in the direction they needed to go. Petra looked at it with great trepidation. “Ashe, what is that being?”

“Umm…that looks bad,” he said nervously, pulling off a glove and pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Looks like a major blizzard.”

“When we were checking the weather report yesterday, there was to be no more than light snow!” Petra exclaimed, a small amount of panic forming in her gut.

“Well, things can sometimes change pretty quickly, that was definitely the case when it came to storms in Brigid,” Ashe retorted, and Petra glanced down and saw the symbols to indicate he’d opened a weather app. “Oh this is bad, really bad…there’s like a foot of snow that’s about to get dumped on us.”

“We are still being so far from our shelter! We must be hurrying!” Petra said, the thought of being caught in an open field by a major blizzard nearly unthinkable. She started to sprint, moving past Ashe.

“Petra, don’t run so fast! You can’t see what the snow’s hiding!” Ashe yelled, comically just too late as Petra felt her foot catching something and sending her face first into the ground. She felt snow fill her gloves and coat, seeping directly into her skin.

She felt herself being pulled to her feet as Ashe grabbed her. “Cmon, we can stick to the plowed routes and make it most of the way before any snow hits us.” Petra followed behind, begrudgingly accepting his fast but not fast enough pace as they wormed their way west. As time passed she felt her fingers growing number and number, and the whimper she let out caused him to turn to her.

“Petra, what’s wrong?”

“Ashe, I am not feeling my fingers,” she said, not able to put the energy she thought she could into that statement.

“You’re going to be okay, come on!” he said, extending his hand. She grabbed it and they continued on.

They were maybe five blocks from their accommodation when a wall of whirling white hit them head on. Petra found herself buffeted by winds that reminded her of the rare hurricane that landed on Brigid’s shores instead getting pushed away by the cooler waters from its north. Snow began to quickly pile up at their feet, and she found herself rushing past Ashe once their house was in sight. Tearing off her gloves as she walked up the front steps, she desperately pulled out her keys, but found herself dropping them as her numb fingers fumbled them.

Ashe quickly scooped down and grabbed them, forcefully pushing them into the lock and swinging the door open. Petra ran past into the kitchen, not caring about the wet trails her boots were leaving along the floor.

“Don’t put the water on hot, it’ll hurt!” she heard Ashe yell, but she didn’t pay it any mind as she knocked the kitchen sink’s faucet to it’s hottest setting and placed her hands under it. His warning had been prudent, and she yelled in pain as the water scorched her hands as if she’d dipped them in lava.

_“Cac focain. Biotáille focain oighir agus sneachta. Táim chun mo chos a shleamhnú go dtí seo suas do bhunanna_ ” she yelled, before firm hands grabbed hers and led her back to the sink. Ashe moved the tap to a middle setting and moved her hands under it. This time, it hit with the warm relief that she had been hoping for the first time, and she the numbness fade as the minutes passed and he gradually pushed the sink to hotter temperatures.

“Ashe, be having honesty,” Petra got out. “How many fingers will I be losing?”

“Losing!? Petra…” he said, laughing softly. Said laugh was instantly quashed at the death glare she shot him. “I know they hurt, but they’re fine. In 10 or 20 minutes they’ll feel as good as normal.”

Ashe must have seen her skeptical look, because he brought up one of her hands to his mouth and started kissing the digits. “Does that help?” he asked playfully.

“I think it is helping,” Petra responded, giggling. “Be sure to be kissing the other hand as well,” as she offered it up to him. He obliged, before putting her hands back under the water, seeming to not care about how wet he was getting the cuffs of his jacket. Several minutes later her hands felt normal, and she moved to dry her hands on a nearby towel.

“I am glad we were making it before it got even worse,” Petra said with relief, as she looked out the window and could only see white blowing against it. “Let us be changing and making dinner, I could be eating one of the trees outside.”

Ashe laughed as they finally removed their boots and moved towards the bedroom. Once there, Petra quickly started to shed her clothing, sighing in relief as the constraints of her many layers slid off her. Feeling Ashe’s eyes burrowing into her, she suddenly spun around, pulled back the elastic of her bra, and fired it at him, allowing herself a small fist pump when it hit him square in the face.

“Ah, why?” he said, falling onto the floor in what was clearly an overly dramatic manner.

“You are staring at the naked body of a princess,” she replied, forcing a snobbish tone into her voice as she kicked her panties off her ankle at him as well. “It is being exceptionally rude, especially when you are not taking advantage of her nudity.”

“Weren’t you the one who said you were hungry enough to eat a tree?” Ashe replied, pouting slightly as Petra put on a pair of sweatpants and a very thick sweater, knitted with intricate designs reminiscent of her braiding, and matching the color of her hair. Petra only grinned in response, as she watched him deposit her underwear in the hamper before giving her a show as well. She whistled appreciatively at the sight of his naked form, before turning and walking out, unbraiding her hair as she did.

Walking into the living room, Petra glanced out the large window that took up most of one wall and shivered at what she saw. The sun had already departed, despite being before dinner. There wasn’t too much black out though, a thick wall of white blowing past. A small groan emanated from her lips as she turned towards the dining room and kitchen. “Should I be pulling the pork chops from the fridge?” she yelled before putting more walls between the two of them.

“Yes,” his reply came back from the other room. “And grab the gingerbread dough as well!”

She did as instructed, taking in their abode as she did. What had originally been a plan to stay in a cheap hotel room had shifted when Petra had caught him wistfully looking at rentals of the town they were staying in. This house in particular had caught his interest, and she could understand why. It was in a neighborhood that Petra was sure at some point had featured on a postcard or poster for the winter holidays that Fódlan, and Faerghus in particular, celebrated so much: winding, hilly roads with houses that were clearly upper-class but modestly sized, made of old brick or stone, with generous forested yards that meant you could only see a few of the neighboring houses. The house that they’d rented was a quite charming one story built a while ago with it’s original brick siding, but with generous room sizes and modern conveniences. What had drawn Ashe’s interest in particular was the large living room that the kitchen she was open to, with a large river stone, wood-burning fireplace and large windows that looked out on the quiet street and dense woods on the other side. The couple who lived here were looking for tenants longer than a week as they snowbirded in the southern most portions of Adrestia, and while the cost of their near monthlong stay gave them both pause, she couldn’t help but inquire why he loved it so much.

_“Well, I remember when after my parents died, and I was doing…what I had to do to feed my brother and sister,” he said, still having shame in his voice despite the necessity of what he did. “We’d always look at those postcards for the winter holidays, the old villages straight out of Robert Frost’s poems, and we’d pretend that one day we’d have our holidays in a place like that,” he admitted sheepishly. “Lonatto’s place was grand and we had many good memories there, but the place didn’t really have that sort of charm. I guess it’s just a foolish dream I’ve still kept in my heart.”_

That answer had promptly melted Petra’s heart, and while they always tried to avoid the subject like the plague, between her access to the royal family’s private funds and his inheritance of Lonatto’s fortune after the untimely deaths of both him and his son, they could easily afford such an indulgence. Her grandfather has raised an eyebrow at the request, which she’d made before Ashe had a chance to dip into the funds he didn’t want to have. They were lucky he already loved Ashe like a grandson-in-law who was close to giving him great-grandchildren.

The thought of that made Petra blush as she pulled spices and seasonings from the bag that Ashe had brought, trying to anticipate which ones he’d want to use on dinner and the gingerbread cookies for tomorrow.

She turned at the sound of footsteps, and saw Ashe walk into the kitchen wearing a matching pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeve shirt that was much thinner than hers, with the logo of the Blue Suns mercenary group from _Mass Effect,_ an inside joke between the two of them.

Petra walked up and gave him a chaste kiss before pulling back. “I am glad you were insisting on filling our fridge with groceries yesterday, even though we were tired. It looks like we will be buried in the snow by tomorrow.”

“Looks like it,” he said, looking over her shoulder to a small window in the kitchen.

“The sun is also being gone already, and it will not be coming back up until very late next morning,” she said, some weariness creeping into her tone.

Ashe put a comforting hand on her should, and she placed one of her own on top of it as she looked at him. “Yeah, it definitely sucks, but if the sun isn’t going to get up until 8:30, why should you?”

“So this is all being the evil scheme to get me to stay in bed in the morning?” she asked with amusement. “Will we not need to be shoveling?”

He sighed, looking at her with well-mannered exasperation. “I’m going to have to tie you to the bed to get you to sleep in, aren’t I?”

She cocked her head and gave him a dirty grin in response. “Is that being a promise, _mo ridire misniúil_?”

He shook his head and chuckled, the faintest blush on his cheeks. “Right then,” he said, turning towards the laid out dinner and evaluating it with a professional’s eye. “Shall we?”

The pork chops were fairly simple, glazed with honey over salt, pepper, garlic powder and some sort of branded red seasoning that left Petra’s nostrils feeling burned in a good way. As their dinner and future dessert baked in the dual oven, idle chatter between them filled the air, with the occasional interruption, like when Petra got a text from Dorothea with a picture of Edelgard and their TA Byleth being absolute dorks together, or one from Mercedes that showed the gingerbread cookies she’d baked with Dedue, Ashe responding with a promise to send pictures of their own creations. When the cookies finally came out of the oven Petra worked to decorate the cookies as Ashe made Cretan salads to serve as their side. She was pleased with the result of trying to give these winter confections Brigid outfits very unsuited for winter when Ashe kissed her hard on the nose, causing her to realize she had a generous dollop of frosting on it.

All the while, music played through the Bluetooth speaker from Ashe’s phone, a playlist of their softer favorites mixed with seasonal tunes. At some point she watched him fiddling with it and a jazzier beat came through. Before she could question it she found one of his arms around her waist and the other around her shoulder, leading her in a simple swaying motion. Laughing, she put her own arms around him and they proceeded to spin about the kitchen, somehow managing to avoid bashing their hips into the countertops. Their reverie ended when the timer for their dinner went off, making him hesitantly pull away as he put on his mitts to grab their dinner.

They ate dinner at a casual pace, lit by a pair of candles, one of which smelled of fir and the other reminding Petra of tropical rain. Discussions of future meals and activities during their stay were occasionally interrupted by wind’s howling that was only getting louder, making Petra shiver on reflex. Once they’d put their scraps in the organic composting bin and the dishes in the dishwater Ashe went to the fireplace, and placed several of the logs from the basket into the it, and a few minutes later a roaring fire was going. Whatever misgivings she had about getting closer to the window with the raging winter storm outside was cast aside when she saw him looking at her from the couch next to the fireplace with inviting eyes, and a bottle of zinfandel and two glasses in his hands. Soon enough, they were cuddling on the main couch as close as possible to each other underneath a thick blanket, and gradually the wine bottle emptied as they passed the time watching the flames dance and crackle to their own merry tune. Petra found it easy to focus on nothing but the warmth from both the fire and her lover, and at some point, she realized, the sound of the wind had stopped entirely.

“Ashe, may I be asking you a question?”

“Of course,” he said, kissing the top of her head. She glanced down at the last of her wine, swirling the dark liquid as she considered her words.

“When I was being a freshman, and rooming with Dorothea, the first snowstorm we were having…she was looking out our window with an expression most bitter. She was saying how much more enjoyable winter was when you were having the walls and being inside.”

“Yeah,” Ashe said, his voice pensive as he pressed the underside of his chin into her forehead. “I never had to sleep on the street like Dorothea did, but there were days when what I stole wasn’t able to afford the heating bill, and my siblings and I had to huddle together to sleep because we had to deal with nights like this with no heat.”

“None!?” Petra said, as the house’s furnace chose a fitting time to turn on and start blasting warm air throughout the house. “In this weather?”

“Yeah…” Ashe said, his voice sounding pained, and Petra felt her heart break for him. She turned around and engulfed him in a hug which he returned whole-heartedly.

“How are you…how are you still having these…romantic feelings about winter, with all that you had to suffer?” she asked, feeling some moisture forming at her eyes. She felt a warm thumb brush them away as she looked up at her lover.

“Well, it’s…” he said, staring past her and towards the roaring fire. “Here in Faerghus, we put so much emphasis on our winter holidays…I mean, the Romanticism movement started here, in response to the Enlightenment arts. Putting an emphasis on nature and emotional struggles…well, I think it’s kind of wormed it’s way inside my thinking.”

“So you are liking this because it is a struggle?” Petra asked, curiously looking at him, his lips stained red and purple with the wine. “The conditions outside are forcing us to be together in a way we would not otherwise be so we can be surviving?”

“Well, cuddling with a woman I love by a fire is nice, but it’s not really what I mean,” he said, looking frustrated at his own inability to adequately explain. “Well, come and look!”

She let out a whine as he threw off their blanket and led her to the window. In addition to the wind being gone, the snow had stopped as well, leaving a large blanket of white across the landscape. Casting her gaze around, she could see the absolute stillness, the trees that had been bare now covered in white, and most of all…

“I am seeing the street sign that is far away!” Petra exclaimed in wonder as she regarded it, placing her hand on the window pane and ignoring the searing cold that seeped through. “The sun was setting many hours ago, but I am seeing as clear as high noon on a clear day!”

“I’ve always loved it when this happens” Ashe said, wrapping his arms around her waist. “We’ve got an almost full moon tonight, and it’s reflecting off of all the snow we have.”

“That is…that is being incredible,” Petra said, taking in the view. She’d seen bright winter nights at Garreg Mach, but they were all accomplished by street lights. Here, on a street where artificial lights outside the house were shunned, she could see far across a landscape that looked completely frozen in time, deep snow burying all the streets, creating an illusion that man had barely touched here, aside from the few houses she could see.

“It is…I have never seen winter like this, not aside from the art works,” Petra said, walking away from the window and towards the fireplace. Ashe slowly followed her, seemingly held up by the burning gaze she cast in his direction.

“I’m glad,” he said, though he seemed districted as she felt his gaze taking her in. “Goddess, you’re so…”

“I have been reading some of the things that couples do in situations like this,” Petra said breathlessly. “Is this not the point we make love to each other by the light of the fire?”

She gasped as suddenly she went from standing next to him to on her back, a hand cradling the back of her head so she didn’t smack her head on the floor, the other hand loosely holding both of hers above her head. The look on her boyfriend’s face as he hovered over was filled with a hunger and determination that Petra relished, causing heat to pool in her belly as Ashe seemingly forgot that she could easily break his hold and bench press him. It was the look she saw when he would hold absolutely nothing back, giving her what she needed above all else. “Yeah,” he said, breathless the hand behind her head left and started pulling at her clothing. “Yes, it is,” he repeated, voice deeper and more sure as he learned down and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

Hours passed, and eventually they found themselves once again laying down by the fire. Ashe had moved the pillows and the blanket down to the floor, and she pressed her back against his front, her body aching everywhere in the most wonderful way. She sighed contentedly as she felt him absentmindedly kneading her breasts, her hair pushed aside so she could feel his hot breaths on the back of her neck slowly returning to normal.

At some point clouds had moved in, obscuring the moon and snuffing all light from the outside. With the lights in the house turned off, the only source left was the fireplace, which was giving its last gasps of life as it consumed the what little fuel was still left. Everything felt so…still, in a way Petra had never experienced before, and it caused her to realize something she never had resigned to never understand before.

“Ashe?” she said quietly, slowly turning to face him, scooting down so they were eye to eye. He hummed softly in response, prompting her to continue. “Are you remembering that one night we were on the beach, a few days before we left Brigid back for Garreg Mach?”

Ashe chuckled slightly, and with what little light was left, Petra could just make out the smile forming on his lips. “I remember you convincing me to have sex in the open air where anyone could have found us.”

“It was being a private beach of my family!” Petra replied with amusement. “You think I am the first member of the royal family to be having sex there? My grandfather was telling me once that I was conceived on that beach.”

Ashe shut his eyes, as if willing that information out of his mind. “Well, that certainly wasn’t what you were whispering in my ear during the act,” and Petra giggled, going quiet as she saw a wistful look come to his face. “I remember afterwards, we were laying to together, just like now…” he trailed off briefly, his hands now rubbing soft circles into her back, before picking up again. “We were looking out at the waves, there was still some light left, not like here,” he said, quickly casting a glance at the darkened window before returning it to Petra. “We’d just past low tide, so the waves were getting stronger and louder each time they came back, and the crickets and owls and coqui frogs were making quite the symphony.”

“Are you remembering what I said to you?”

“You said you never wanted this night to end, that you wanted it to last forever,” he replied, a note in his voice that implied some agreement with the sentiment.

Petra nodded, briefly pecking him on the lips and withdrawing before he could mount a true response. “When we were there, I was wishing to be…freezing time, to stop the next day from ever coming. But…” she paused, briefly glancing at the window before continuing. “There was being so much activity, all you were mentioning, and I was-am loving it. It is the heartbeat of my home. But it is hard to be imagining a truly still moment with such things.”

Petra pressed her forehead into Ashe’s, closing her eyes. “But here, everything is being so still. There are not being the insects or other animals, or the sounds of people, and with the wind being gone…it is like we are being frozen in time.”

“Yeah,” Ashe let out in agreement, and Petra opened her eyes to see him looking at her intently. “I remember some of my favorite paintings growing up of Faerghus, paintings of villages that neighborhoods like this were created to look like, everything would look so calm and peaceful, like they were painting a still life instead of a cityscape.”

“Yes, like a landscape transformed into a still life, that is what this is being,” Petra said. “I have always had struggle to understand why there is so much love for this cold winter, but now…I am being frozen here forever with you, and I would not be trading it.”

Ashe gasped softly, and she saw traces of self-doubt creep into his features. “That’s exactly how I feel right now. I’m glad I was able to show you this part, but I would _never_ try and take you from your home, ever.”

Petra reached a hand up to cup his face, before slightly pulling it back and stretching her fingers so they all touched various freckles. “Ashe, it has filled my heart well past fullness that you have agreement to be moving home with me after we graduate, but be knowing that I would would follow you anywhere, and now that I am understanding what you are seeing here, I could do so without hesitation.” A small smile broke unto his face, and Petra could just make out the moisture in his eyes. “I love you with everything I am, my gallant knight.”

He let out a deep sniff, and Petra saw a single tear trail down his face, which she quickly caught and rubbed away with her thumb. His smile looked like it would break his face, and he began forming what he wanted to say in her language. _“Agus tá grá agam duit le gach rud atá ionam, mo fharraige agus réaltaí.”_

Petra smiled at him, moving her hand to the side so she could capture his lips in the deepest kiss possible, just as the last embers of the fire faded and cast them into darkness.


End file.
